Rhea Ripley is a very successful wrestler. She and fellow wrestlers, Gabriel Aeros and Eli Thesus, went on a trip to Vegas recently. The three posted an Instagram collaboration showing highlights of the trip, including them posing over the strip. Theseus captioned the post, “Adelaide > Vegas.” How does she stay so fit? Read on to see 5 ways Rhea Ripley stays in shape and the photos that prove they work.
Ripley wants women’s wrestling to be highlighted. “I want the women’s division to be the biggest that it’s ever been,” she says to GQ. “But there’s always that selfish side of you that wants to be the face of the women’s division. I want to make history, to make a legacy for myself – but if accomplishing that means that the women’s division doesn’t grow and get better, then it wasn’t really worth it.”
Ripley shared her favorite workouts with GQ. She says that she does a variety of different workouts. “Normally, when I go to the gym, I do 20 minutes of cardio, then lift weights for two and a half, sometimes three hours – it really depends on what I want to do. It’s my happy place, so I like to spend time there – it’s the one place I get to turn my brain off. At the moment, I still get in to do cardio and I’m weight training at least six days a week, but today I only did back [training] for an hour.”
Ripley has a busy schedule, but she always makes time for herself. “It’s important to have those moments of free time when you can turn your brain off,” she told GQ. “Whether it’s at the gym, watching a movie, or just spending time with friends and family – anything you can do to put yourself at ease and make yourself feel like a normal human for a couple of hours.”
Ripley tells Muscle and Fitness that she pushes herself at the gym. “I don’t really have a schedule sorta thing. Like, yes, I have my allocated days for certain muscles but sometimes that gets muddled up (due to the demands of a pro wrestling career). This is a very taxing job so you don’t know how you’re gonna feel each and every day, so you just try and go in and do as best as you can but for me, I just try and lift all the heavy stuff! Like, I workout with Buddy Matthews, so, he lifts extremely heavy and I try and keep up with him. It’s pretty much impossible but, you know, I do make him question himself every now and then!”
Ripley shared her motivations for being better at wrestling with The Sporting News. “We don’t technically have a leader, none of us really lead – we just have specific jobs that we are better at. They all listen to me and they all believe in me and it helps me believe in myself at the same time. I’ve obviously got a target on my back… it’s keeping me quite occupied. I’ve got my hands full, but at the end of the day it makes the day go faster and I love a good challenge – I’m down for whatever is thrown my way.”